Monday, October 27, 2014

Good & Bad: 'The Walking Dead' (10/26/14)

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Plot: Well that was fast. The remaining Terminus folks had an
emotionally busy episode. One minute they’re chowing down on Bob, all happy
like. Then they find out poor old Bob had been bitten by a walker, meaning that
dinner could repeat on them in a nasty, nasty way. So they ditch Bob back to
where they found him and set their trap. See, they know Bob will tell Rick and
company where to find them and they further know that Rick will storm over
there with the intention of killing all of them dead. And all goes exactly
according to plan. A skeleton crew headed by Carl is left behind to guard the
church and Rick’s gang goes off to find the Terminus folks, who are actually
waiting to attack the under-guarded church while Rick is off hunting them. Of
course, Rick is suddenly a master at sniffing out traps and so he leads
everyone right back to the church just in time to save the day and massacre all
the Terminus people once and for all.

Along
the way we learn Gabriel’s not-so-shocking backstory (hid in the church while
his congregation got eaten alive outside), Bob dies and Ty stabs him right in
the head for it. Also, Abraham and Rick yell at each other and at the end, Glenn,
Maggie, Abraham, Eugene, fist bump girl and Latina Sarah Connor head to D.C. to
save the world, Rick and everyone else decide to hold up in the church. Daryl
shows up in the middle of the night and acts all mysterious and brooding and
handsome when asked about the location of Carol.

Good: Bob’s reveal. I did not see that coming. A couple of
friends of mine predicted the reason Bob was such a weepy mess last week was
because he’d been bitten, but I thought he was just reminiscing about the good
old days. In hindsight, the fact that Bob wasn’t long for the world should have
been clear for a couple of reasons: a) He became the group’s conscience. This
is a bad spot to be in, ask Dale and Herschel. b) Fr. Gabe is a black man and “The
Walking Dead” has a long and suspicious history of offing one minority
character to make room for a new one. Still, I totally missed it.

Bad: Gabe’s backstory. Not that it was bad, per say, more
just predictable. Thus far, I still think this should have been a one and done
thing.

Good: Abraham vs. Rick. I’d watch this match. Abraham has
the guns, but Rick will do literally everything to win. I’m not sure Abraham is
prepared to stab Rick to death with a porcupine after chocking him out with a sock
puppet wearing a feathered boa. These are things that Rick does every single
day. Muscles, numbers, they don’t win in a fight with Rick. You need to fully
embrace the crazy.

Good: Should we stay or should we go? In terms of this
argument, I probably side with Rick strictly for the “We need to wait here for
Daryl and also Carol and so we should probably make the area safe.” I mean, you
can’t ever leave Daryl and the only reason the entire group isn’t hamburger
right now is Carol so you kind of owe it to her. And that’s not even factoring
in the potential of Beth which they don’t know about.

Bad: Latina Sarah Connor. Can we give this girl something, anything
to do? At all? Her just lurking in the background and occasionally yessing or
noing along with the group is getting distracting.

Bad: The double cross? Triple cross? Was it actually a cross
of any kind? I don’t know, but I was not thrilled with it. For one thing, I wasn’t
ready to say good bye to Gareth. Yes, I know last week I said not everything on
this show needs to happen in eight episode arcs, but I wouldn’t have minded
this particular story going eight episodes. The Gabe thing, that I could take
or leave. There was so much untapped potential with the Terminus people. I’m
not sure this show has ever really nailed a villain. Either they last way too
long (Guv, Shane, Laurie, Andrea) or not long enough (Joe, Gareth). Either way,
how did Rick know the trap was set by Terminus peeps? Why did he come back? Was
he winking the entire time he talked about getting the Terminus people at the
school and I just missed it? Even if you didn’t want to let anyone get taken
hostage, you could have had Ty go full beast mode and rip a few of them apart
before Rick storms back after hearing their screams. I’ve said it before and I’m
sure I’ll say it again, I don’t like Rick as the all-knowing Jack Bauer of this
show. He doesn’t need to be an emotionally-shattered mess again either, but
stop having him be 15 steps ahead of everyone else. It makes him less interesting.

Good: “This is a church!” says Fr. Gabe after Rick and the
gang beat the Terminus people to death. Ok, first of all, talk about brass
balls. You, the man who hid in the church while his congregation was eaten by
walkers outside, don’t get to judge anybody for doing anything anywhere. Also,
it gave us this great, nothing-is-sacred-anymore line from Maggie, who is still
in this show in case you forgot: “No, it’s just four walls and a roof.”

Bad: Way to dodge the question of whether eating an infected
human will make you a walker, “Walking Dead” writing team. Inquiring minds want
to know.

Good: We haven’t done the sad walker turn in a while. Was
Laurie the last one? Oh wait, no I think it was Herschel’s head. Still, been a
while.

Bad: Really? We put Ty in charge of killing Bob when he
comes back? Ty? The last person Ty was supposed to kill ended up eating Bob’s
leg like two days later. Ty seems like the worst possible person for this
assignment. At that point, I would have trusted Judith to take care of business
before Ty. Judith was at zero whereas Ty was in negative numbers.

Good: Michonne gets her katana back. Seeing her with a gun
just felt off. It’d be like seeing Daryl trying to kill someone with Rick’s
porcupine.

Good: Yay, we're all split up again and some of us are on the road. Fantastic decision. Something for everyone here.

Good: You all got lucky. Oh, hey, Ty, welcome back to doing
stuff all the way through. Feels good to check off boxes again, right?

Good: Sup, Daryl, man of mystery? We get to spend all of
next week with you? We better.